Israel takes reasonable action to protect citizens

[caption id="attachment_70663" align="alignright" width="300"] ISRAEL/GAZA BORDER, ISRAEL - NOVEMBER 20: Parachute flares illuminate the Gaza Strip for an artillery barrage, hours before a proposed cease fire, on November 20, 2012 on Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. Accorrding to reports, Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip have said that an Egyptian brokered ceasefire between Israel and Gaza militants is due to begin at midnight local time, but is unclear whether the Israelis have confirmed an agreement. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)[/caption]

ORANGE, Oliver Watson: The Register has it right: “Israel has the right – indeed the moral obligation – to protect its citizens, who have tolerated 12 years of rocket fire from Gaza” [“Rockets and retaliation,” Editorial, Nov. 18].

The outrageous quote from Council on American-Islamic Relations Director Hussam Ayloush trying to portray Israel as over-reacting is interesting. If someone fired rockets into Ayloush's back yard, would he stand by without taking action? Would he dismiss it by saying, “Every once in a while, there will be small rockets” and then do nothing about stopping the perpetrator?

One would think that if CAIR really had concern about the Gazan citizens, it would strongly condemn taking violent actions about perceived injustice and, instead, promote focusing resources on productive programs to improve Gaza's economic well-being.

______

MISSION VIEJO, Bob Greenspan: Monday, Nov. 19, the Register ran a front-page story, “Israeli strikes flatten homes” plus a Page 4 story, “Israel expands airstrike targets.” Three more headlines appeared on Page 6: “Gaza children are terrified,” “Hamas links truce to removal of border blockade” and “U.S., Britain warn of risks of Israeli ground war.” Where are the stories about Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and most non-Arab countries, firing thousands of rockets into Israeli cities over the last 12 years that terrify Israeli children as well as the entire civilian population of Israel including thousands of Arab families and their children? Where are stories about Israel finally saying, “Enough, we have had it. We are going to protect our people”?

If the Register is going to cover the war between Israel and the Hamas terrorists and other terrorists firing rockets into Israel from Gaza and from the Sinai, then at least do it fairly.

Obama's cultural naïveté

ANAHEIM, Mohammed Shoaib: Burmese political leader Aung Suu Kyi seemed visibly uncomfortable as President Barack Obama tried to kiss her. Richard Gere had an arrest warrant for kissing an Indian woman on stage. In Eastern culture, public kissing has no kind onlooker. The West ought to know better.

Key reelection factors

SAN CLEMENTE, John Redkorn: Columnist Mark Steyn analyzes the Republican assessment that “Brown” voters (i.e. Latinos, Cubans, Mexican Americans and other Latin voters) carried the president to re-election [“How GOP earned its date with destiny,” Commentary, Nov. 18]. While it is true that this demographic provided President Barack Obama with votes that increased his leverage against challenger Mitt Romney, it clearly was not a single determinative factor. Women voters, increased voter registration, get-out-the vote strategies and an increase in the African-American turnout had more to do with the president's re-election than just one demographic group.

Not to mention, defining Romney early as a plutocrat who cared less for the middle class.

Government is the fix

PLACENTIA, Leland J. Bellot: In the letter “FDR's economic fix” [Nov. 12], Gary Mc Cloud exhumes the old conservative/libertarian argument against the efficacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. He said, “FDR needed World War II to fix the economy.” World War II policies of the Roosevelt administration essentially embodied the New Deal on steroids.

The federal government, in the name of the “war effort,” intervened in the economy more forcefully and more extensively than at any time in U.S. history. The federal government told private businesses – often with government subsidies to “make the medicine go down” – what to produce, how much to produce, what price to charge, what profits were acceptable. In some instances, such as the “Manhattan Project,” the federal government owned and operated the entire enterprise.

The feds also intruded into the economic lives of individual citizens. Across the board Americans were more heavily taxed than ever before to control inflation as increased incomes chased fewer “consumer” goods – goods which were not only limited by the categorical imperatives of wartime production but also, more arbitrarily restricted by government-determined rationing.

It was out of such an interventionist environment that the U.S. not only emerged out of the Great Depression but, also entered into that postwar era of general economic prosperity that so many in the present look back upon with such great fondness, as “the good old days.”

Hardly a persuasive argument for less government in major crises – economic or otherwise.

Deportation is due

COSTA MESA, Thomas M. le Grande: Why are illegal immigrants held in jail and provided with expensive medical care [“County, ICE look into jail criticism,” Front Page, Nov. 17]? If someone is arrested for being here illegally, why aren't they driven to the Mexican border or put on a plane to their home country immediately? Their welfare and expenses are not the responsibility of American taxpayers.

The ‘right to life'

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Nancy McKinney: We heard the expression “a women's right to choose” so much during the recent election. What exactly does that mean? Oh, we hear that it means a women's right to choose what she does with her own body and no one else has the right to tell her what to do. But what I'd like to know is “what right to choose” do little infants forming in the womb have? Who will stand up for them?

All of you who are parents know that from the first positive on a pregnancy test to the first ultrasound you were all excited about the “baby” you were expecting. It was not a blob of tissue to you but your child.

There are plenty of people waiting to adopt if you don't want the child. So next time you stand up for the right to choose, choose the baby's right to live.

Living our convictions

COSTA MESA, Kristy McTaggart: I want to thank letter-writer Steve Armstrong for bringing clarity to the issues for me [“Embrace values-driven GOP politics,” Nov. 18]. There's only one thing worse that I can think of for the future than abandoning our government to a single party of progressive tilt and that is abandoning our convictions as individuals.

I agree with Armstrong that the GOP position on immigration isn't morally defensible, but if opposing legal and subsidized abortion and insisting that gay relationships are indistinguishable from heterosexual ones is “against the grain,” then the grain is the problem.

Talking-points entangle

HUNTINGTON BEACH, David Ellis-Anwyl: Regarding Libya and the David Petraeus affair: When did we decide to substitute talking points and talking about talking points for the truth? Can't we just tell the truth and get on with the business we need to get done? It would surely simplify everyone's lives. Sir Walter Scott must be somewhere saying I told you so.

Letters to the Editor: E-mail to letters@ocregister.com. Please provide your name, city and telephone number (telephone numbers will not be published). Letters of about 200 words or videos of 30-seconds each will be given preference. Letters will be edited for length, grammar and clarity.

WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Letters to the Editor: E-mail to letters@ocregister.com.
Please provide your name, city and telephone number (telephone numbers will not be published).
Letters of about 200 words or videos of 30-seconds
each will be given preference. Letters will be edited for length, grammar and clarity.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.